The 2018 Oscars Get Political
March 9, 2018
This year’s Oscars drew a lot of attention after ABC star Jimmy Kimmel hosted, having a noticeably political focus throughout the night.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Many other actors made comments onstage related to the heavily political year of 2017.
Kimmel started the show talking about the “most beloved and respected man in Hollywood,” Oscar himself. “He keeps his hands where you can see them, never says a rude word, and most importantly, no penis at all. That’s the kind of man we need more of in this town,” he said, referring to the hundreds of sexual allegations made against actors last year.
After making a few shout-outs to actors in the crowd—slipping in Trump and Pence jokes here and there—Kimmel finished his introduction by recognizing Guillermo Del Toro’s film “The Shape of Water.”
“Thanks to Guillermo, we will always remember this year as the year men screwed up so badly, women started dating fish.”
As the night progressed, several other actors included politics in their speeches.
The creating team of “Coco,” which won Best Animated Picture, used their moment on stage to explain that “art can change and connect the world, and this can only be done when we have a place for everyone and anyone who feels like another to be heard.”
The director of the Pixar film, Lee Unkrich, gave “the biggest thank you of all” to the people of Mexico for their beautiful and inspiring culture and traditions, ending his speech with two words: “Representation matters.”
The show then had a special segment for the Time’s Up movement, for which they had three actresses who accused Harvey Weinstein for sexual misconduct up on stage: Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek.
“This year, many spoke their truth, and the journey ahead is long, but slowly a new path has emerged,” Sciorra said.
Hayek followed, saluting “those unstoppable spirits who kicked ass and broke through the biased perceptions against their gender, race and ethnicity to tell their stories.”
Then, after Del Toro won Best Director for “The Shape of Water,” he used his time on stage to recognize his own immigration into the U.S.
“In the last 25 years, I’ve been living in a country all of our own,” he said. “The greatest thing our art does, and our industry does, is to help erase the lines in the sand when the world tries to make them deeper.”